This invention relates generally to the art of clasps for climbing ropes, particularly to a carabiner for use by mountain climbers.
A carabiner is an oblong clasp usually used to connect a piston or link to a climbing rope in a way that allows relative sliding movement between the two. Carabiners may also be used to interconnect various pieces of climbing hardware.
The standard carabiner is an eliptical or D-shaped device formed from round aluminum or steel stock and having on one side a gate that can pivot inwardly, that is, toward the other side of the carabiner to admit a rope or strap. The standard carabiner lies substantially within a single plane, which requires that the bights or loops joined by the carabiner also be substantially coplanar.
In some instances coplanarity is not desired and in fact undesirable twisting of certain members could be avoided were opposite ends of the carabiner to be in approximately perpendicular planes rather than parallel ones. A particular instance is where the carabiner is connected between a piton attached to a wall, and a pulley. Current practice in such situations is to use two standard carabiners in series.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide climbers with a simple and inexpensive carabiner whose opposite ends lie in different planes.
An additional object of the invention is to provide such a carabiner with a gate whose orientation avoids interference between the gate and the opposite side of the carabiner, while nevertheless being properly oriented to prevent inadvertant disengagement of a rope from the carabiner. A related object is to enable the climber to install the clasp and then invert it while clipping into the devices so as to place the gate in a safe position against his body, thus preventing inadvertent gate opening.